Barker: We Need To Be More Consistent
- LCFC Women play host to Blackburn Rovers Ladies in the Conti Cup on Wednesday evening (7:45pm kick-off)
- City lost for the first time in the league this term on Sunday, going down 4-1 to London City Lionesses
- Sophie Barker reflects on a disappointing afternoon for the Foxes in which they conceded three second-half goals
- She says the team must produce better and more consistent performances in the upcoming fixtures
City's Continental Cup campaign gets underway at Farley Way Stadium in midweek, following a first league defeat of the season against London City Lionesses.
There is no time to dwell on that result, with Wednesday's cup tie followed by an FA Women's Championship fixture at home to Lewes on Sunday (2pm kick-off).
The games are starting to come thick and fast, which Barker believes will be a good way to try and put last weekend's disappointment behind them.
"We now know how it feels to lose and none of us liked it," the 29-year-old admitted to LCFC TV. "No one ever likes losing and we've got a really quick turnaround of a Conti Cup game.
"It's a really important one this week, with another league game, so we need to pick ourselves up really quickly, but we definitely don't want to feel like that again.
"It's a busy schedule and every team is going to test us in this league. We're the team to beat, we're the full-time team, we're the ones expected to win every game."
Barker also reflected on an uncharacteristic display at Princes Park, during which the Foxes conceded three second-half goals after taking the lead through Paige Bailey-Gayle's early strike.
"I thought from the off we assumed we were going to win it," she continued. "And it purely came from their desire, their work ethic, they out ran us, they outplayed us.
"We didn't deserve to win that at all, so I'm a little bit embarrassed by that. How we can go from playing so well recently to performing like that?
"I've been in this league a long time and I know to win it needs consistent performances and we didn't show that."
City currently lie fourth in the league standings, on 11 points after six games, while a win by more than one goal in the Continental Cup would see them go top of the Group E table.
Barker added: "They've (London City) just proved that we're not unbeatable and we need to find a way of how we can be not beatable because I'm just not really happy with that performance.
"We need to start performing, we can't be inconsistent like we've been, starting so well in the season and then dropping points like that.
"We need to show that, being full-time, we're not lazy, we need to perform better than that so hopefully we'll show that on Wednesday and turn it around quickly."
All times GMT.